Microsoft and Crowdstrike are licking their wounds after a chaotic weekend. The faulty update that Crowdstrike rolled out would have affected at least 8.5 million devices, with serious consequences.

On Friday, it was impossible to miss: The global IT industry was in turmoil. The result of a failed update of Crowdstrike Falcon Sensor on Windows. The update combined PCs and servers in one Boot loop or on the dreaded Bluescreen of death (BSOD) end.

Less than one percent

The incident also got Windows owner Microsoft into trouble. Microsoft has measured the damage in a blog. Around 8.5 million Windows devices are said to have been affected by the faulty Crowdstrike update. Microsoft emphasizes that this is less than one percent of all Windows devices worldwide.

That one percent was enough to cause complete chaos. Retailers and banks were left with broken systems, but the aviation sector in particular was devastated. More than 1,400 flights had to be cancelled worldwide, and at some airports staff had to rely on handwritten boarding passes.

Haste and haste are rarely good

Crowdstrike is, of course, much more than just Microsoft. CEO George Kurtz has already had to apologize extensively for the incident. It is now becoming increasingly clear what exactly went wrong with the security specialist. Crowdstrike released a configuration update for its sensor software on July 18. What is normally a standard procedure led to a logical error that caused system crashes and BSODs.

Jo Vander Schueren of Belgium’s Jarviss is not surprised that this would happen sooner or later. According to his analysis for ITdaily, this could just as easily have happened to another provider. “The pressure on listed companies to bring innovations to market is too great and the speed at which they roll out updates is too high.”

Crowdstrike confirmed via a LinkedIn post that “a significant number” of the affected devices have now been brought back online. After a weekend that ruined many IT managers, the world can gradually return to normal. However, the solution is not obvious and requires manual work. If your organization continues to experience problems, read our guide or take a look at the recovery portal set up by Crowdstrike. An official recovery tool has also been launched from the Microsoft camp.

What’s next for Crowdstrike?

The incident could have a long history for Crowdstrike. Since Thursday, the company’s shares have fallen by almost 20 percent and its reputation has suffered considerably. Crowdstrike is striving for transparent communication and stresses that this is not a hack. Customers can also be assured that the provider’s security tools will continue to do their job.

Vander Schueren believes that Crowdstrike will make it. “Basically, Crowdstrike will have protected itself in its agreements with customers. Otherwise it will mean the end of the company. Now the stock is falling, but I am curious to see how the market will develop in six weeks.”